It's still a Kindle Fire, but new software brings improvements over last year.

When it was released last year, the original Kindle Fire's primary selling point was its $199 price. This seriously undercut just about every other Android tablet worth owning at the time, and was enough to make the Fire worth a look despite some deficiencies relative to other multipurpose Android and iOS tablets.

We all know what happened next: Google and Asus released the Nexus 7 tablet earlier this year at the same $199 price, and it bested the Kindle Fire in every way. It was lighter and less chunky; the then-new Jelly Bean version of Android made using the tablet silky smooth, in contrast to the Fire's pronounced jerkiness; and its stock Android installation and access to Google Play made it more broadly useful than the Fire's Amazon-focused customizations.

At the same $199 price, the Kindle Fire HD has many of the same problems as the non-HD Kindle Fire relative to the Nexus 7—the hardware is nice enough, but its customized version of Android makes it slower and less useful by comparison. However, the refreshed version of the original Kindle Fire comes in at just $159—cheaper than the Nexus 7, but is it enough to make the Kindle Fire a good buy for the cash-strapped customer? Or are you better off giving Google the extra $40?

For the sake of clarity: throughout the review, I will be referring to the 2012, non-HD Kindle Fire as the "Kindle Fire." In the cases where I mention the 2011 Kindle Fire and the 7" Kindle Fire HD, I will be more specific.

Hardware

The exterior shell of the 2012 Kindle Fire is essentially identical to its 2011 predecessor, and any cases or other accessories made for the previous device will continue to fit the new one. It hasn't gained or lost any weight or thickness; the power button, headphone jack, and USB port are all in the same places; and the speakers are in the same location and sound the same as the older model. Any exterior differences in the casing between this year's Fire and last year's are minimal, and can only be discerned through very close inspection: the plastic bordering the screen on the new Kindle, for example, appears to be a matte plastic, whereas on the old Kindle it was glossy.

The Fire is heavier than the Nexus 7, but has a similar rubberized back and isn't uncomfortable to hold during long reading sessions. The power button is stiff enough so as to be difficult to press by accident if the bottom of the device is resting on something, which is nice, though dedicated volume buttons are still conspicuously absent.

Enlarge/ The headphone jack, micro-USB port, and power button are still located on the bottom edge of the Fire.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ Two decent-but-not-great stereo speakers are located on the top edge of the device.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The back of the Fire is still rubberized, and it's comfortable to hold in your hand for long periods of time.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The old Fire came with a power adapter, but the new one only includes a micro-USB cable for charging and moving data.

Andrew Cunningham

This means that the 2012 Kindle Fire has the same 1024×600 resolution as the previous device. At 169ppi, it's not as crisp as the 216ppi 1280×800 screens on the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7, but it's fine for reading. The difference is more noticeable while browsing the Web—smaller text on the Fire can be blocky and difficult to read, while the same text on the higher-resolution Fire HD is clearly legible without zooming.

Enlarge/ The Nexus 7 (and, by extension, the Kindle Fire HD) can view smaller text from a greater distance.

Andrew Cunningham

Smaller text is harder to read (and sometimes illegible) on the less-dense screen of the Kindle Fire.

Andrew Cunningham

Not much has changed on the inside of the Fire since last year. The single-band Wi-Fi, lack of Bluetooth, and 8GB of nonexpandable internal storage are all the same—if you'd like to upgrade any of those, you'll need to look instead at the Kindle Fire HD. The battery life is also comparable—Amazon promises 8.5 hours of continuous use, but six or seven hours is more realistic in practice.

A few things are different, though, but not by much: the 2012 Kindle Fire still uses a dual-core OMAP 4 SoC from Texas Instruments, but clocked at 1.2GHz rather than 1.0GHz. Folks who rooted the original Kindle Fire could easily overclock to this speed, so the clock speed bump isn't much of a stretch. Of slightly more consequence is the 1GB of RAM, which doubles the original Kindle Fire's 512MB—this should primarily allow for more apps to be in memory at once, though it also has the potential to make the new Fire a bit snappier than the old one.

Enlarge/ The Fire and the Nexus 7 are actually not too different in terms of thickness, but the Nexus 7's rounded corners and lighter weight make it feel much smaller.

Andrew Cunningham

Measuring the new Kindle Fire's speed compared to the previous Fire is difficult, though—while the 2012 Fire is running the same Android 4.0-based operating system as the pricier Kindle Fire HD, the 2011 Fire is still running the older Android 2.3-based operating system, and an Amazon representative informed us that the old Fire would not be receiving an upgrade to the new software despite the fact that it was released less than a year ago and has very similar internals.

This is the approach that the company usually takes to updating its E Ink Kindles, so it's not entirely surprising that last generation's products won't receive this generation's software improvements. It's less of a problem on a single-purpose e-reader than on a multi-purpose tablet, though—keeping Web browsers and APIs up-to-date is important for both security and functionality, and we'd like to see Amazon dedicate more resources to keeping at least the previous version of the tablet up-to-date and secure.

Andrew Cunningham
Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

would be remiss not to re-emphasize the raw deal that Amazon's early adopters are getting here: first-gen Kindle Fire owners will not be receiving any of these software enhancements, despite having hardware that should be capable of running it.

And this is why you don't buy hardware from Amazon. They don't seem to give the slightest crap about the existing KF owners. What's more baffling is, because these are sold as loss leaders for Amazon content, they have a valid business reason for keeping people happy with their existing hardware.

"Even though the Silk browser's Sunspider scores are very close to the Nexus 7's, in practice the browser still takes considerably longer to load pages than Chrome on the Nexus 7."

So, just in case you have no idea, Sunspider scores have almost nothing to do with page load times in a browser. Page load is mostly a perception thing and as such is best tested visually, which thankfully Ars did. But this sentence somehow implies that Silk is somehow gaming the system to get better Sunspider scores than it deserves, which its (likely?) not.

No one can be so strapped for cash that they have to pay 159USD rather than 199USD for the Nexus 7.

If it really came to being willing to make sacrifices like that, why not get a 80USD tablet in the supermarket.

Some like to be able to give something to thier children. This device has several advantages in that arena, first being the lower price, but second being the more rugged design. Honestly I think the design/form factor is an advantage for anyone who wants to have a tablet they don't have to worry about.

To give Amazon the benefit of the doubt here: Maybe the new ICS based Kindle OS doesn't work so well on a tablet with only 512Mb of RAM? Given that RAM size was the only real change other than the OS here, I'd suggest that they are likely correlated.

Some like to be able to give something to thier children. This device has several advantages in that arena, first being the lower price, but second being the more rugged design. Honestly I think the design/form factor is an advantage for anyone who wants to have a tablet they don't have to worry about.

Sure, fair enough.

Yes, I have heard of people cracking the Nexus 7 by dropping it even from small heights.

"Even though the Silk browser's Sunspider scores are very close to the Nexus 7's, in practice the browser still takes considerably longer to load pages than Chrome on the Nexus 7."

So, just in case you have no idea, Sunspider scores have almost nothing to do with page load times in a browser. Page load is mostly a perception thing and as such is best tested visually, which thankfully Ars did. But this sentence somehow implies that Silk is somehow gaming the system to get better Sunspider scores than it deserves, which its (likely?) not.

Right, good observation. I don't subscribe to the school that treats Sunspider scores as gospel, but usually they at least sort of track with real-world page loading speeds. Not so in this case.

No one can be so strapped for cash that they have to pay 159USD rather than 199USD for the Nexus 7.

If it really came to being willing to make sacrifices like that, why not get a 80USD tablet in the supermarket.

Some like to be able to give something to thier children. This device has several advantages in that arena, first being the lower price, but second being the more rugged design. Honestly I think the design/form factor is an advantage for anyone who wants to have a tablet they don't have to worry about.

I actually purchased the 2011 KF for my kids to use, and put a cheap, but thick rubber case on it.

It survived a fall from the back of a moving automobile with no damage.

"Even though the Silk browser's Sunspider scores are very close to the Nexus 7's, in practice the browser still takes considerably longer to load pages than Chrome on the Nexus 7."

So, just in case you have no idea, Sunspider scores have almost nothing to do with page load times in a browser. Page load is mostly a perception thing and as such is best tested visually, which thankfully Ars did. But this sentence somehow implies that Silk is somehow gaming the system to get better Sunspider scores than it deserves, which its (likely?) not.

Right, good observation. I don't subscribe to the school that treats Sunspider scores as gospel, but usually they at least sort of track with real-world page loading speeds. Not so in this case.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried side loading google chrome on the Kindle Fire to see how it compares in tests? I know it's not part of the default install or in the Amazon app store, but for the more advanced users it's pretty trivial to install. I ended up with a Kindle Fire HD from a friend of mine who was given it, loaded Google Chrome browser on it, and it seems pretty peppy. Handles my girlfriends basic tablet needs, which are web, email, facebook, and her kindle library.

Granted, I'll agree for the price of a Nexus 7, unless you have to have access to Amazon Prime video, the Nexus is a better deal.

I know several people who have the Kindle Fire (including my sister-in-law, to replace her Kindle 2, so she can read at night).

Those people strictly bought it as a consumption device - Amazon content, web browsing, maybe FB. That's it... and they probably won't care it isn't getting the updated software.

My wife was interested in one (has a Kindle 3) for the same reason - so she got a Nexus 7. She only uses it to read books and do FB. My reasons for getting it didn't matter for her (pure android!), though the kids like doing Netflix and playing all the games I've collected in my Google Play account.

Those who want a consumption device will (mostly) be completely content with the Kindle Fire <x>... and those who aren't, will go for a Nexus-type. I doubt it is about even saving $40-50.

The most significant aspect of the new Kindle Fire is that I can actually buy it - It's finally for sale in the UK (at £129). it would be interesting to know which other countries have it available. And while we're on that, since this is aimed at consuming Amazon's content it would be interesting to get a run-down of how that content varies in different countries. Google Play in the UK, for instance, only offers apps, books and movies to rent (but not own). How does this vary internationally?

Apple has put some effort into making its devices and ecosystem available worldwide, and it'd be useful to see how well the competition is doing in catching up.

I can see peoplele for whom this Would be a decent product. You just use your tablet to consume media and you have involvement in amazons environment. But anybody else? Why should they even think about it. The killer is that the first Version doesnt get an update. Thats just nasty!

If you have one of these (or any Kindle Fire) give my game SumDice a look. </shameless plug>

I finally got to play it today on a Fire (I ported it from the iPad and tested it in a simulator) and was pleased to see that it ran exactly as it does on an iPad (it's not terribly taxing graphically but I had heard the Fire was a bit slow). I may just pick up one of these or the FireHD since I buy all my books through the Kindle store (does anyone use iBooks?).

I'm looking forward to the Kindle Paperwhite review too (any timetable on that one?)... I love to read outdoors and need to replace my old broken "keyboard model" Kindle.

In the Kindle Fire HD announcement broadcast, Bezos made a big point about how they don't want you to need to buy an new Kindle every year. (Painting Apple as the bad guy, somewhat ironically as they have industry-leading support for legacy hardware.) How does that square with discontinuing all future updates for the original Fire? Seems like an outright falsehood.

In the Kindle Fire HD announcement broadcast, Bezos made a big point about how they don't want you to need to buy an new Kindle every year. (Painting Apple as the bad guy, somewhat ironically as they have industry-leading support for legacy hardware.) How does that square with discontinuing all future updates for the original Fire? Seems like an outright falsehood.

Maybe the doubled RAM is what make ICS work well on the updated "regular" Fire? That's the only non-cynical explanation I could think of...

Is it possible to buy and root/unlock a '12 KF and see how CM10 performs on it, compared to the stock Amazon Android? I mean, honestly, comparing the KF to the N7 is almost apples-to-oranges (no pun intended there).

I mean, if you had a CM10-based KF, and a CM10-based N7, you could compare them objectively that way, yes? I imagine the builds of CM9/10 that work on the '11 KF should, in theory, work on the '12 KF, being that very little actual hardware has been changed.

I also wonder if there is a way to disable the ads without paying Amazon more money; other than having to pay ~$180 for a mostly-comparable-to-N7 '12 KF, why not just go for the N7, or the 7" HD?

Is it possible to buy and root/unlock a '12 KF and see how CM10 performs on it, compared to the stock Amazon Android? I mean, honestly, comparing the KF to the N7 is almost apples-to-oranges (no pun intended there).

I mean, if you had a CM10-based KF, and a CM10-based N7, you could compare them objectively that way, yes? I imagine the builds of CM9/10 that work on the '11 KF should, in theory, work on the '12 KF, being that very little actual hardware has been changed.

I also wonder if there is a way to disable the ads without paying Amazon more money; other than having to pay ~$180 for a mostly-comparable-to-N7 '12 KF, why not just go for the N7, or the 7" HD?

It's apples-to-apples because they hit similar price points and aim at similar markets. Rooting it, putting stock Android on it, and reviewing it that way might be an interesting project (and look for more of that kind of thing soon!), but is of practical use to almost nobody because 99.999% of consumers would never use it that way. :-)

Hm.....While I do see it as an interesting project, I for one, endorse it (because it means diddly-squat), and I semi-volunteer for such a project!

Plus, this being a tech-oriented site, I am sorta surprised we don't see more about things like rooting and CyanogenMod, AOSP, and other such off-shoots, especially in Android-land, but also from the Apple and Windows Phone/Tablet spaces, if such things were to exist.....

It's funny in a way that the one device that all the others in the Kindle line get the attention but the one that I fell in love with; the Gen3 Kindle. The size and weight of it is perfect but even with the latest re-iteration it's missing the one thing that would get me to upgrade: additional storage for books.

I'd buy a Kindle Paperwhite in a heartbeat if they would simply Increase the size from 2GB to 4GB or more. I mean, come on, the frigging Nook and Kobo has a MicroSD for additional storage and we're still stuck with 2GB?!

Guess I'll go back to hoping that maybe one of these days Amazon will make one. -_-

It's funny in a way that the one device that all the others in the Kindle line get the attention but the one that I fell in love with; the Gen3 Kindle. The size and weight of it is perfect but even with the latest re-iteration it's missing the one thing that would get me to upgrade: additional storage for books.

I'd buy a Kindle Paperwhite in a heartbeat if they would simply Increase the size from 2GB to 4GB or more. I mean, come on, the frigging Nook and Kobo has a MicroSD for additional storage and we're still stuck with 2GB?!

Guess I'll go back to hoping that maybe one of these days Amazon will make one. -_-

Uh, its tough to fill up 2GB with books, and I have a lot of books. If it keeps the price down, I'm fine with it. Furthermore, why the heck would you need more than 2GB of books? Its not like you can possibly read that many on even a extended vacation. We are talking hundreds of books in that space...

I run Firefox on my Kindle Fire and it benchmarks quicker than iPads. So web performance is not an issue with these kindles. Silk doesn't live up to the hype for sure, but its not as bad as you make out in real life and as I say, there are faster options easily available.

Uh, its tough to fill up 2GB with books, and I have a lot of books. If it keeps the price down, I'm fine with it. Furthermore, why the heck would you need more than 2GB of books? Its not like you can possibly read that many on even a extended vacation. We are talking hundreds of books in that space...

Actually, it's really not as hard as you think especially when you read as much as I do. Normally I tend to go thru about two 250-page books a week since I have plenty of time to read by taking public transit. So what I've been doing is loading up some novel series I've been meaning to read (right now on post-Nemesis Trek novels) and just pouring thru them along with books I check out from the library.

With my Kindle pretty much being the perfect size I, quite literally, take it everywhere except the bathroom. It's quite literally the best gift I've ever been given which is why these slight oversights are a irritation when you know it's competitors do it one better. I'd even be willing to pay the price for a Paperwhite if it had the additional storage since the backlight would open being able to read on the Kindle in darker areas (example: bus at dusk/night and intermittent lighting).

As a side note I'd really forgotten not only how much I enjoyed reading and while taking public transit can be a pain it's one of the few benefits that I really enjoy. Really makes me wish that I had gone to school, somehow, and been a Librarian and tried combining my love of PC's with it (graduated 1990 pre-internet connected libraries). ^_^

an Amazon representative informed us that the old Fire would not be receiving an upgrade to the new software despite the fact that it was released less than a year ago and has very similar internals

As an owner of the original Kindle Fire I have to say I'm disappointed but not surprised by this. I understand their reasoning, but I don't really agree with it.

I feel like the software on it is fine for what it does, but given the similarities between old and new hardware, and the fact that the original one has been available for less than a year (they actually came out in November, despite being announced in October) I figured an update wasn't too much to ask.

Further, if they are, as they've said, interested in selling services or goods - Amazon Prime, video downloads, music, ebooks - and aren't trying to make money on the hardware, why not give users of the older tablet the update so they can access the newer functionality? Maybe those users would end up spending more money on Amazon!

Owning a Kindle Fire, I have to say that this alone is reason not to buy one. Amazon's implementation of the volume control is rather obtrusive and doesn't mesh well with a lot of apps (see Plants vs Zombies for example). After dropping an ICS ROM on the Fire, a much friendlier volume control can be had through the Notification area. However, there are battery issues with ICS. So now I have a JB ROM, which doesn't have that volume control and it's back to square one. I have to use a 3rd party app to get something close to what ICS had.

Point is, not having a physical volume control is horrendously bad design. Plus, with the Nexus 7, you get GPS, Bluetooth, a microphone, a volume rocker, etc.

Owning a Kindle Fire, I have to say that this alone is reason not to buy one. Amazon's implementation of the volume control is rather obtrusive and doesn't mesh well with a lot of apps (see Plants vs Zombies for example). After dropping an ICS ROM on the Fire, a much friendlier volume control can be had through the Notification area. However, there are battery issues with ICS. So now I have a JB ROM, which doesn't have that volume control and it's back to square one. I have to use a 3rd party app to get something close to what ICS had.

Point is, not having a physical volume control is horrendously bad design. Plus, with the Nexus 7, you get GPS, Bluetooth, a microphone, a volume rocker, etc.

Uh, its tough to fill up 2GB with books, and I have a lot of books. If it keeps the price down, I'm fine with it. Furthermore, why the heck would you need more than 2GB of books? Its not like you can possibly read that many on even a extended vacation. We are talking hundreds of books in that space...

Actually, it's really not as hard as you think especially when you read as much as I do. Normally I tend to go thru about two 250-page books a week since I have plenty of time to read by taking public transit. So what I've been doing is loading up some novel series I've been meaning to read (right now on post-Nemesis Trek novels) and just pouring thru them along with books I check out from the library.

With my Kindle pretty much being the perfect size I, quite literally, take it everywhere except the bathroom. It's quite literally the best gift I've ever been given which is why these slight oversights are a irritation when you know it's competitors do it one better. I'd even be willing to pay the price for a Paperwhite if it had the additional storage since the backlight would open being able to read on the Kindle in darker areas (example: bus at dusk/night and intermittent lighting).

As a side note I'd really forgotten not only how much I enjoyed reading and while taking public transit can be a pain it's one of the few benefits that I really enjoy. Really makes me wish that I had gone to school, somehow, and been a Librarian and tried combining my love of PC's with it (graduated 1990 pre-internet connected libraries). ^_^

Right, I get this, but you really need to have more than 2GB at a time on it? Are you going to be away from all network access for long enough that 2GB of reading material will be read before you can get to your next wifi AP? I ask because Amazon essentially has an unlimited amount of storage in the cloud, and you can download a book at any given time from the Archived Items section of your device.

Seems there really is little reason to keep it all local. Its not like you lose your place in the book, notes or anything else if you don't keep it on the device at all times.

Owning a Kindle Fire, I have to say that this alone is reason not to buy one. Amazon's implementation of the volume control is rather obtrusive and doesn't mesh well with a lot of apps (see Plants vs Zombies for example). After dropping an ICS ROM on the Fire, a much friendlier volume control can be had through the Notification area. However, there are battery issues with ICS. So now I have a JB ROM, which doesn't have that volume control and it's back to square one. I have to use a 3rd party app to get something close to what ICS had.

Point is, not having a physical volume control is horrendously bad design. Plus, with the Nexus 7, you get GPS, Bluetooth, a microphone, a volume rocker, etc.

I've honestly not understood this complaint. Tap the top right corner, volume is the default slider. Two taps and you have your volume adjusted.

Also, the Nexus 7 is priced against the FireHD, which has better hardware for the price.

I bought the ad-supported version of the Kindle Fire HD, and did not disable the ads because there were actually some good deals I could use. Got a movie, Kindle eBook, and an album at reduced priced vouchers for starters(yeah I know, exactly as planned by Amazon lol). Although some of the ads are annoying because it's sometimes the same ad over and over. They really need to refresh their offers more often. But since I'm a heavy Amazon consumer, their ads for their offers are OK with me. I agree though, that for a clean experience, get the Nexus 7 if you are not a heavy Amazon media customer. Fire and Fire HD are pretty much Amazon vehicles to push sales on consumers, no doubt about it.

The Kindle Fire I received last December has always offered the option removing any item from the carousel via a long press of the icon and selection of "Remove from Carousel". Why does this article (and other Ars articles on the new Kindle Fires) describe this as a new feature absent from the original device?

The Kindle Fire I received last December has always offered the option removing any item from the carousel via a long press of the icon and selection of "Remove from Carousel". Why does this article (and other Ars articles on the new Kindle Fires) describe this as a new feature absent from the original device?

Because Ars likes to decry various manufacturers for not supporting thier devices, but then ignore the numerous updates and new features that some devices, including the Fire line, recieve. There have been six updates to the Kindle Fire since launch, which is pretty impressive. Most were to address specific user complaints or issues, including the Carousel one.